Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/506

474 Yorktown and Williamsburg. [1862 You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal entrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to note is noting now that the present hesitation to move upon an entrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated." Beginning his march with 50,000 men on April 4, McClellan found his first obstacle at Yorktown on the York river, which place, with Gloucester Point opposite, the Confederates had strongly fortified. But the Confederate General Magruder had only a garrison of 6000, with 5000 other troops spread along a line thirteen miles in length, to an inlet from the James river. Instead of promptly breaking through this line, which his overwhelming force of four to one would have enabled him to do, McClellan laid regular siege to Yorktown, and spent almost a month in digging trenches and building batteries. At midnight on May 3, when McClellan was ready to open his bombardment with nearly a hundred guns, Johnston, who had superseded Magruder, suddenly evacuated the place, marching away with the 50,000 men he had been able to accumulate. He was well satisfied with the respite which McClellan had allowed Magruder. To use his own language, " It saved Richmond, and gave the Confederate government time to swell that officer's handful to an army." General McClellan learned the evacuation of Yorktown at dawn on May 4; but the news found him so thoroughly surprised and unpre- pared that noon came before he could organise the pursuit. This gave the enemy ample time to prepare their next point of delay at Williamsburg, where a number of redoubts and entrenchments had previously been got ready. Here on May 5 was fought a battle without plan, without guiding supervision, but not apparently without misunder- standings between the Federal commanders that resulted in ample reinforcements idly awaiting orders, while their comrades were being pressed and driven back by greater numbers. McClellan only arrived on the scene late in the afternoon, having stayed behind at Yorktown in order to send troops up the York river to West Point, which was to be his principal depot of supplies. On the Unionist side, parts of four divisions were engaged, and on the Confederate side about 10,000 men. Both sides claimed a victory, but the manifest advantage fell to the Confederates, who were able to continue their retrograde movement unmolested, while McClellan remained several days at Williamsburg. The Confederate retreat, however, opened the James river to Unionist gunboats. The enemy abandoned Norfolk, which was occupied on May 10 by an expedition from Fortress Monroe under General Wool ; and the Confederate ironclad Merrvmac on the Elizabeth river, thus caught between the Federal forces, was on May 11 abandoned by her officers and crew, set on fire, and blown up.